Minotaur's Labyrinth (1)

Ordinary hunters who reached the seventh floor were only around level 10 at best, and even that was true only of those who had spent day and night hunting on the outskirts of Thebes. Most of them broke long before they ever climbed this high.

But Kim Jun was different.

He was level 36 now. After a Dragon Heart had been transplanted into his body, and after he became the first person to assemble a complete set of equipment, his growth had been explosive.

Even defense in the low thousands was nothing more than thin paper to Kim Jun now.

“Stop.”

When he spoke in a low Dragon Tongue, the gargoyles around him seemed to freeze one by one, as if time itself had been locked in place.

Among those turned to stone, only Kim Jun's footsteps rang out.

Step. Step.

A faint smile touched his lips as he stepped into the lord's domain.

“Long time no see.”

The Gargoyle Lord was easily three times the size of an ordinary gargoyle.

Its skin was like limestone that had endured a thousand years, its fangs were sharp as spears, and the wind kicked up by the spread of its wings shook the entire seventh floor.

Kim Jun slowly drew the greatsword on his back. The blade, engraved with the pattern of red dragon scales, flashed in the dim light of the floor.

“Kieeeeee!”

With the Gargoyle Lord's roar, the floor trembled. Dragging its massive body behind it, the monster charged straight at Kim Jun.

For any hunter, it would have been a moment of pure terror.

Kim Jun simply stood where he was and waited, his expression calm.

Whoosh—

Just as the giant monster reached him, a single slash split the air.

The arc drawn by the sword erupted into flames like the breath of a dragon.

The Gargoyle Lord's ironclad hide, which had seemed unbreakable, melted and split apart as if it were butter.

The sound of stone liquefying rang out like metal being torn and twisted.

It took only one second to bring down a defense of 1,000.

Dragon Talon Reinforcement ignored 10 percent of the opponent's defense. For most hunters, it would have been a negligible amount, but Kim Jun was not most hunters.

That 10 percent gap became the decisive crack through which molten lava rushed in, and the flames used it to melt away the remaining defense in an instant.

“Kieeeeeeeeee!!!”

With a scream filled with agony, the Gargoyle Lord was engulfed in red flames. Its massive body split in two and crashed to the floor.

The flesh that had once been so hard was now nothing more than a rock melted in lava.

On the eighth floor, the Temple of the Ice Golem, an ice golem swung its fist at Kim Jun.

He ignored it.

With a single swing of his greatsword, flames surged, and the six-meter-tall golem vanished in a burst of steam.

Kim Jun never stopped walking.

On the ninth floor, in the Wizard's Library, the mage Belfast cast ten elemental spells at once. Kim Jun simply swung his sword once, and the mage's body scattered like ash.

Ding—!

“What? Already cleared the seventh floor?”

The hunter group fighting for their lives in the mines on the outskirts of Thebes's fifth floor stared at the announcement in disbelief. One of them tipped back a canteen and drank deeply.

“It has to be either the Azure Dragon Guild or the Black Tiger Guild. Only they could pull that off.”

“Still, that's way too fast. It's already the second day since we got to the third floor...”

Before he could even finish, another alert sounded.

Ding—!

“W-what? Already Floor 8...”

“This can't be...”

The hunters' faces went pale. Then, once again, the alert rang out.

Ding—!

“That's an insane pace...”

“That isn't something a human can do...”

The tavern called Hero's Rest in Thebes was packed wall to wall with hunters, all of them crammed shoulder to shoulder. Everyone was nursing a drink and waiting for the next announcement.

“Hey, Floor 10 is the final boss of this zone. No matter how fast he is, it'll take at least an hour,” said Kim Dohoon, a hunter with a face full of scars.

“What are you talking about? You saw the pace so far, didn't you? I'm putting 100 coins on him clearing it in under ten minutes!” Park Jaehyun shouted, slamming the table.

Black Joe, the owner, widened his eyes and looked at Park Jaehyun.

“Here we go again. You already cleaned me out last time with your bets, didn't you?”

“Black Joe, this time I'm serious! We'll do it by the rules!”

Black Joe sighed. Hero's Rest had originally been the oldest tavern in the village of Thebes.

He was a former tower conqueror himself, and after retiring he had opened the place.

One of his unusual talents was fairly mediating bets among hunters, so before long the tavern had naturally become an unofficial betting hall.

“Fine. I'll put down 200 coins on twenty minutes!”

Lee Minwoo shouted.

“I'm betting 300 coins he'll clear it before the day is over!” Jeong Seokho jumped in.

“Tch, you idiots are all crazy. Didn't you see the notice when you entered the tower? The Floor 10 boss is on a completely different level from Floors 7 through 9. I'm putting 500 coins on him not clearing it today!” Choi Seoyoon said with absolute confidence.

Black Joe, as he always did, began writing the bets on the chalkboard behind the bar. Every wager had rules.

Prepayment, at least two witnesses, a 10 percent fee, and no objections to Black Joe's final ruling.

“I'll take money for only five minutes!”

The hunters rushed to shove their coins forward.

Some of them even emptied out every last coin they had saved.

Ten minutes passed.

Twenty minutes passed.

An hour passed.

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Still, the Floor 10 clear announcement never came.

“Ha! I won!” Choi Seoyoon shouted as she jumped to her feet.

“Hey, the day's not over yet,” Jeong Seokho shot back.

“At this pace, shouldn't he already have cleared it? Maybe he's just taking a rest today.”

Yoon Jia muttered from one corner of the table.

“Or maybe he got killed by the Floor 10 boss.”

For a moment the tavern went silent, and then it burst into laughter.

“No way! A monster who cleared Floors 7 through 9 in under four minutes isn't getting taken out by the Floor 10 boss!”

“Just shut up and wait! He'll finish today, I'm telling you!”

Midnight was fast approaching.

“There are only ten minutes left! Ten minutes from now, Choi Seoyoon wins the bet on 'not clearing it today'!”

Choi Seoyoon's face was glowing with delight at the thought of collecting the winnings she had been promised, but Park Jaehyun, who had been counting down those ten minutes, looked grim.

The clock struck 11:59.

“10! 9! 8!”

The hunters began counting down.

“7! 6! 5!”

Then—

Ding—!

The tavern froze.

“Exactly five seconds before midnight. Barely within 'today,'” Kim Jun said.

Bang!

Choi Seoyoon slammed the table so hard it shook. Her face had gone white.

“500 coins... all my coins...”

The tavern erupted again. Jeong Seokho let out a shout of triumph. The other hunters who had won their bets clinked their glasses together, cheering.

“A Minotaur...”

“So the Floor 10 boss was a Minotaur.”

“Looks like Floor 10 really is on a completely different level.”

Lee Minwoo drained his cup and said,

“Guys like us are definitely dead. We should just stay holed up in Thebes.”

Just then, a hunter near the window by the tavern entrance shouted,

“Look over there!”

Every gaze swung to the window. Out on the street, a man was approaching at a slow walk.

At first glance, his body looked absolutely wrecked, smeared from head to toe in red liquid.

But looking closer, it wasn't his blood at all.

It was Minotaur blood.

To everyone's astonishment, his armor was perfectly intact.

It was hard to believe he had fought the Minotaur for twelve hours when there wasn't a single scratch on his equipment.

Only the red blood and dust of battle coated him.

Most striking of all were the enormous greatsword hanging from his back and the massive horn clenched in his right hand.

“I'm exhausted.”

As soon as Kim Jun stepped onto Floor 10, he felt a familiar wave of dizziness.

The Minotaur's Labyrinth. A maze that was itself the boss's domain.

Tall walls of stone enclosed him on every side, while black mist drifted across the ceiling overhead.

Kim Jun frowned. Even before his regression, this maze had been one of the most troublesome obstacles he had ever faced.

This time it's a little different.

Crack—!

Kim Jun drew his greatsword, flames licking along the blade, and brought it crashing down on the wall. With an explosive roar, the stone shattered into pieces.

But in the next instant, space warped, and a matching wall appeared behind the destroyed one as if it had always been there.

Useless, as expected.

A magically constructed space where breaking one wall simply caused another to be born in its place.

In a place like this, even Kim Jun's power could not force a breakthrough.

Smell...

A beastly scent brushed against Kim Jun's nose.

The stench of blood, the smell of bull, and a foul odor like moss mixed with mold hung over the entire labyrinth.

Scattered throughout the maze were Minotaur doppelgängers. Monsters that could appear from anywhere, at any time.

They were weaker than the true body, but in a maze like this, meeting one would be fatal.

Grrooo...

From somewhere far away came a roar like a bull's bellow. The Minotaur was roaming the maze in search of prey.

Because of the maze's structure, it was impossible to tell where the sound was actually coming from.

The real purpose of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this labyrinth was to drag challengers out, wear them down, and force them to face the Minotaur king only after they were completely exhausted.

Last time, I spent a whole month on this place.

Kim Jun recalled the memory from before his regression.

The month he had spent wandering lost in the Minotaur's Labyrinth.

Even then, it had only been because he had happened to find a relic while exploring the maze.

Thread of Ariadne.

The thread from Greek myth that Theseus had used. The only way to escape the Minotaur's Labyrinth.

Kim Jun closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

It was a skill he had gained after killing the hidden boss, the goblin shaman, on the sixth floor.

In an instant, Kim Jun's eyes turned blue.

The walls of the maze became semi-transparent, and thin waves of mana began flowing throughout the labyrinth.

The strongest of those waves was striking the wall at the end of the left corridor.

It looked just like any ordinary wall, but through his Detection skill, that place was emitting a blue light unlike the others.

“There it is.”

A smile spread across Kim Jun's lips. The place where the Thread of Ariadne was hidden.

This time, he wouldn't need a month.